Design and evaluation of thermoreversible in situ gelling system of forskolin for the treatment of glaucoma

The contact time of a vehicle on the cornea is of utmost importance for ophthalmic drug delivery. The poor bioavailability and therefore poor therapeutic response exhibited by the conventional ophthalmic solutions due to pre-corneal elimination of a drug may be overcome by the use of the in situ gel forming systems, which upon instillation as drops into the eye, undergo a sol-gel transition in the cul-de-sac. The purpose of this work was to develop an ophthalmic delivery system of the forskolin, based on the concept of temperature activated in situ gelation. Poloxamer 407 (Pluronic F-127) is a block copolymer made of poly (oxy ethylene) and poly (oxy propylene). The sol-gel transition is induced by an increase in temperature; however, it depends on the concentration of the polymer and presence of other additives. The developed formulations were therapeutically efficacious (on albino New Zealand rabbit model); reducing intra ocular pressure (IOP) for 12 hours and showed sol-gel phase transition (gelling) temperature of 22 C and sustained drug release 72% +/- 0.056% in vitro behavior over a period of 4 h.